Pay increases not enough : Fiji Civil Servants

According to Radio New Zealand . a union covering Fiji’s
government workers says pay increases announced in last week’s budget don’t go
far enough.

Fiji’s civil servants will get about 50 million US dollars
in pay hikes ranging from 23 percent for the lowest paid to between four and
seven percent for those at director and deputy secretary level.

The Public Service Association says it has been fighting for
a pay increase for seven years and recently lodged a claim for a 110% rise
after the government increased the most senior officials salaries by nearly 200
percent.

The PSA’s General Secretary, Rajeshwar Singh, says under the
new salaries the lowest paid civil servants, who number about 14 thousand, are
still well below the poverty line.

“We want to have a dialogue, discussion, collectively
bargain and we’ll find a middle ground somewhere. The real wages have declined
by forty percent. That might be the point where we can come and start talking.”